Nick's Side
by Cofusm
Summary: Nick's personal experience during the story of Left 4 Dead 2
1. Hello Hellhole

In writing for the others, my name is Nick. I am just your average guy, wearing a white tux, killing zombies. What else is new?

It's been several days since we've been rescued, 'we' being Ellis, a southern kid, age unknown, Rochelle, the only female survivor to my knowledge, and Frank, or Coach, as he likes to be called. We're the only survivors in this region of the United States. This virus that has been ravaging the Earth is a mutated strain of rabies, which affects the victim's thinking, motor skills and, rarely, physical form. We're often transported from place to place, looking for others, or just kinda dropped off, usually from the pilot being infected and jumping us.

Anyways, there's this one place that really sticks out in my mind. It was at this hotel, near a mall, which we could use to find supplies and contact any remaining survivors in the area.

* * *

"Come back! Hey! HEY! Come back! Come BACK! Ugh, damn it!"

We've just been shoved out of a helicopter, onto a tall building, that was swarming with these zombies! The pilot had been acting weird, and with a strange, somewhat sympathetic look in his eye, shoved all of us out of the chopper, on this hotel. He then flew the copter away, later crashing it into a nearby gas station.

"Did ya see that? He just... dumped us here!" exclaimed Ellis, shocked.

"I'm right here, yes I saw it! We're stranded here, on this godforsaken building in the middle of a zombie-infested city!" I shouted.

"I'm sure we can get to the ground through this hotel, guys." said Rochelle, always weirdly calm.

"I'm sure we can all get ourselves slaughtered going through this hotel!" said Coach. Regaining his composure, he said, "We need guns, weapons, and first aid. Let's take a look around."

I did as I was told. I quickly scanned the top of the hotel. My eye caught something shiny, poking out from under a pile of wooden boards. "Hey, what's that over there?" I pointed to the shiny object I was looking at.

Ellis walked over to the pile of wood, lifted it up and picked up the object. "Well I'd be damned! It's an assault rifle, if I'd ever seen one!"

"On this rooftop?" I was kinda bewildered. "Why would there guns on random rooftops?"

"The world is a mysterious place, son. What else is under there, Ellis?" said Coach.

"Looks like... 3 SMG's... some med packs... a defib unit... ooh! There's also axes here!"

"Give me the SMG and one of those med packs. I'll keep my pistol. Can't carry too much." I looked around some more, and seeing nothing, glanced at the door, leading to the stairwell. "We gotta go through there. It's the only way."

"...Okay, fine. I'm ready. You?" said Ellis to Rochelle.

"Ready. Coach?"

"All said and done. Let's kill some zombies," said Coach.

* * *

He walked over to the door and, with a grunt, kicked the door open. We walked into the stairwell together – if we went by ourselves, we'd be screwed.

Walking down the stairs, I heard some weird noises, almost human, almost not. I paused, trying to define what I was hearing in my mind.

Then I felt a thump, painful, but not terrible. I snapped around on the spot, and saw my first zombie. With a bloodied mouth and blood-stained shirt, it wasn't a pretty sight. I pulled the trigger, felt the recoil, heard the bang, and saw the exploding zombie head.

"Damn! Those things are scary as Hell!"

"You're telling me," said Coach, whom had just killed a zombie of his own, with an axe.

I heard many more strange sounds, which I now mentally defined as zombies. Walking down the dark, musty hallway, we walked in a room, blasted another zombie and saw a table with a few goods on it.

"What is this?" I said, holding the strange looking cylindrical object with multiple wires.

"Pipe-bomb. It has an alarm wired to it, so it'll attract zombies when thrown. Then it'll explode, killing 'em," explained Ellis.

"How'd you know?" I asked, curious.

"I know things. C'mon, we got killing to do."

I shrugged, stuck the bomb in my pocket, and followed the group. After entering another room, I felt a strange, gagging sensation around my neck. I immediately reached for my neck, and felt this... thing, slimy and squishy. I was also being dragged away from the group. "Argh! Something's got me!"

Rochelle quickly turned around and shot whatever was choking me. The grip released and I ran forward to the group. Then I looked at my offender. "What the hell is that? That thing that was choking me... a... tongue!" I was just being strangled by some zombie's extended tongue! "*Cough* Ugh, and this smoke! That... zombie released it!"

Coach ran to us, "What happened? Why was there some smoke just now?" The smoke had cleared up, and I finally saw what my attacker looked like. It's face was all swollen and puffy, had only one eye, and had this huge, long, bloodied tongue.

"This zombie just attacked me. It had this long tongue, like a chameleon, and released this smoke when it was killed. Let's call it a Smoker. There may just be more of these."

"Damn. You know there are others that are others mutated like this as well. C'mon, let's keep moving." said Coach.

We caught up to Ellis, who was grinning. "This is kinda fun, guys. You never get a chance to kill zombies with a katana." He twirled his katana around in his hand and sheathed it.

"You're one crazy son of a bitch, Ellis," I said. "This is real life, not some video game!"

"Yeah, I know 'n all, but, hey, better make the best of it! Let's go!"

I sighed and kept walking through the rooms. There was a patio opening to the outside, right of it was a 2-foot wide walkway leading around the perimeter of the hotel. "Let's take this walkway. We should end up at a different section of the hotel, past those locked doors."

Coach looked over the edge of the railing, down to the ground 18 stories below. His face flushed and he stumbled backwards. "Aw, man. I'm afraid of heights. I was ever since I was a kid, during a freak airplane incident," Coach said wearily.

"We're going to die if we don't get out of this hotel. Be a man and follow us," said Ellis, coldly, actually being much younger than Coach.

"..." Coach grimaced and pressed his back against the wall, and very carefully inched his way after us.

* * *

After getting to the neighboring patio, we opened the door and went inside. There was trash and dead bodies scattered all over the place. We looked around the room, seeing if there was anything we could use. "Hey, I found some pain pills!" The others ran over to me and I handed each of them a bottle.

"Good find, Nick," said Rochelle. "If any of us get hurt, but don't have time to heal ourselves with med packs, these pills will help."

We didn't find anything else interesting, so we left the room and continued down the hallway. I went ahead to look for anything interesting for myself, as I was losing interest in my pistol.

When I turned into another room, I ran into the ugliest, biggest zombie I have ever seen. It was a huge, fat, puffy, bloody zombie that looked like it hurt for it to move. "Ahhh!" I yelled, and instinctively brought up my pistol and shot the zombie. Big mistake.

As soon as I pulled the trigger, the zombie exploded in a shower of blood, guts, and... vomit? I was blinded and completely soaked to the bone in this shit, and shortly after the thing exploded, I was swarmed with zombies. I tried to get them off, but there was too many of them! I was hit, bit, slashed and torn, then I realized that they were not there anymore.

"Holy shit! What happened to you? Those zombies completely swarmed you! And you're covered in zombie puke!" exclaimed Ellis.

"I shot this zombie... a really, really fat one... ugh... I'm hurt. Help me up." I said, painfully.

Rochelle got me up and treated me with the contents of one of the med packs. "There you go. Feel better?"

"Yes, thank you." I breathed, exhausted. "I'm gonna call those big fat zombies Boomers, 'cause they explode when shot."

"C'mon, we gotta keep moving," said Coach impatiently.

We found another stairwell and went down the few stories it would take us. I saw a zombie and shot it before it noticed us, which attracted several more. We took the others down fairly quick. After leaving the stairwell, I heard a faint, barely audible explosion, coming from many floors below. "I may be wrong, but that explosion probably means this building is gonna burn to the ground. We gotta move. Fast," I said.

"Don't have to tell me twice," said Coach.

Shortly after the explosion, we found an elevator. "Ah, here we go! This'll take us all the way to the bottom floor!" exclaimed Ellis.

I called the elevator and got inside with the others. I pressed the "1st Floor" button and the elevator made its decent. "When we reach the bottom, we have to get out of the hotel as fast as we can. Be ready to run, and run fast," said Coach.

Then, the elevator suddenly shuddered and stopped, grinding to a halt. Then the elevator started getting warm, and filled with smoke.

We were trapped in the elevator shaft.


	2. Escape and Reentry

"The elevator stopped! It's stuck!" cried Ellis.

"How are we gonna get out?" said Rochelle.

"The only way we came in. C'mon, let's all try to pry the doors open!" I said.

All of us gripped the doors and pulled as hard as we could. I could hear the doors starting to creak, and then they started to give. Slowly, the crack in the door became big enough for us to exit.

"C'mon, get out!" I shouted, and we left the elevator.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

The entire 1st floor was on fire! The carpet, the walls, everything! "God damn it! We're gonna get fried!" I shouted.

"Not if we go fast!" said Coach.

We ran through the halls as fast as our legs would carry us. The intense heat of the fire was almost too much for me to handle, but I pushed forward. We tried to stay in the clear, less burning parts of the halls.

"Though here!" I shouted, and we ran into a hotel room, killed a few burning zombies, and kept going.

We got to a cafeteria. I vaulted over the stainless steel table and continued forward. I tripped on a loosed cable and cut up my leg on a hunk of metal. My med pack fell off my belt and landed in a pile of burning wood. "Augh! My leg!" I yelled. I couldn't put any weight on it without buckling up in pain. "There's no time to help your leg now, Nick," said Coach. "I'm gonna have to support you."

He let me hold onto his shoulder so I could limp with the group. I was defenseless, so I completely depended on my friends. We went into the hotel's lobby.

"Hey! Somebody was here before!" exclaimed Ellis. "Look! That's a safe house! There's probably equipment in there!"

My leg searing with pain, I croaked, "Let's move it!"

We were ambushed.

This large, oddly shaped zombie with one huge arm and one scrawny arm slammed into Coach and carried him a distance away. "Help! This thing's got-" the zombie slammed Coach on the ground, knocking him out.

"Coach!" I yelled. Incapacitated, I could use both hands now, so I brought out my pistol, and with the help of Ellis and Rochelle, brought the zombie down.

"Coach!" Ellis yelled. "Coach! Aw, damn it all! Don't die on me!" He ran over to the unconscious Coach and tried to shake him awake. "Coach! Coach!"

"He'll be okay, Ellis. Just let him come to when he comes to," said Rochelle, a bit shaken. She used her med pack on me and I could stand again.

"Thanks, Rochelle," I said. "We have to get to that safe house and save Coach."

We ran to the safe house, made of reinforced steel, so it wouldn't burn down along with the rest of the hotel.

"Whew! We made it!" I shouted.

"Yeah, we made it," said Ellis, "Let's hope Coach does too."

We let him rest for a few hours and tended to his wounds. After a few more hours, he woke up.

"Whoa... what happened...?" mumbled Coach.

"You were knocked unconscious by a zombie," I said. "It charged at you, picked you up and smashed you on the ground. We killed it, with some difficulty. Let's call it a Charger."

"...Hm. A Charger," said Coach, regaining his strength. "Let's get going. We gotta get to that mall for supplies."

"Whenever you guys are all ready!" said Ellis, cheerfully.

"You're in a good mood, for being in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, Ellis," Rochelle said, soberly. "You could be the morale booster of the century,"

"I know! Ain't I a pal?" he said, still cheerful.

Ignoring his ridiculous remark, I said "Let's go to that mall. Before we do, however, there's a gun store nearby. We should go there to get weapons, ammo and medicinal equipment."

We ventured out of the safe house cautiously. We had no idea what would leap at us.

I mean, literally. We had no idea what would leap at us.

A physically fit zombie wearing a hooded sweatshirt leaped at me and knocked me to the ground. The others were shocked, and after a couple seconds of me getting the shit clawed out of me, they killed the zombie clinging to my chest.

"That was probably the most agile zombie I've ever seen!" exclaimed Coach.

"...Argh... Give me those pills." I said, in pain, but not too terribly bad.

"It's, like, a zombie that's perfectly fit for hunting, leaping at it's prey and killing 'em!" said Ellis, who then started laughing, but then, realizing how insensitive his joke was, slowed to a chuckle, and finally stopped, saying "Sorry, Nick,"

"Don't mention it. Ever," I said, darkly. "Anyways, Let's call those ones Hunters. That seems to fit."

"Hey, my joke gave you an idea!" Ellis said, brightly.

Ignoring this, I led the group through an empty street, killing a couple zombie along the way. We reached a small park complex which we could use to cut through the neighborhood and get to the gun store faster.

"Let's take this path. We should get to the gun store- and the mall- faster." I said.

We began to walk through the park. After a few minutes, I thought I heard a hissing sound, not like a cat's, but like acid eating through something. I pushed the thought out of my head and kept going.

It's not a bad idea to hold onto thoughts longer.

We heard this hacking sound, like somebody trying to clear their throat, and a large glob of yellow/green stuff came hurtling over a hedge. It splattered on the ground near our feet.

"Aw, man, what's this stuff?" Ellis asked.

"I don't know for sure-OW! Get out of it! Now!" Coach yelled, in pain from the acid burning his feet.

"Shit! This stuff is acid!" I exclaimed.

We quickly stepped out of the puddle of acid and ran around the hedge the glob came from. I saw the most hideous thing I'd ever laid my eyes on. It was a female zombie, had pale skin, a big, bloody mouth, and was dripping acid! It spat the glob of acid at us!

"Shoot it!" Rochelle said.

We shot the thing down, quite easy actually.

"That thing is disgusting looking! Ugh. I'd hate to run into more of these. I'll call it a Spitter." I said.

"Suiting name," said Ellis, wiping the acid off his shoes with the barrel of his gun.

After walking a few more minutes, we exited the park and came to the gun store. We opened the door and went inside.

"Holy shit! Look at all these guns!" exclaimed Ellis, excited.

"Everybody, grab a weapon, laser sights and explosive ammo," I said.

I got myself an M16 assault rifle, Coach got a 12-gauge shotgun, Ellis got an Uzi, and Rochelle got a sniper rifle. We snapped the laser sights into place and loaded our guns with explosive ammo.

I then noticed a large, upturned cardboard box at the corner of my vision, near the far end of the store. I walked over to the box and picked it up. There was a chainsaw underneath! And it was full of gas!

"Damn! Look at what I found!" I picked up the chainsaw and revved it, testing the engine. "And it works!"

"Lucky! I want a chainsaw too!" jokingly whined Ellis.

"Nice find, Nick," said Coach.

We couldn't really go anywhere now, so we went to the door at the far end of the store. It was locked, but there was a small mounted speaker and button interface on the wall next to the door.

Testing the interface, simply to see if it worked, I held down the button and said "Hello? Anybody on the receiving end?"

After several seconds of no reply, the speaker hissed to life. It was an old man's voice. "Are you survivors?"

"Yes, we are," I said, trying to hide my exasperation of finding another survivor this quickly. "We're trying to get to the mall."

"There's a truck blocking the way to the mall up ahead, but I can destroy it with my rocket launcher here. But, I've locked myself in, 'cause I've completely given up hope on actually surviving. I'll blow it up, all right, but, I'm thirsty. Get me some good, old fashioned cola, and you will be on your way."

"We're on it," I said.


End file.
